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Feb 3, 2017

Launching a Spot.Coaching Program: Rockstar or Zen Mode?

The 5 main challenges of an internal spot.coaching program

As coaching becomes increasingly popular, leading companies like Intel have decided to develop spot.coaching programs with their internal coaches in order to support a greater amount of employees. You know how much I value any effort towards enabling more people to benefit from coaching. However here are the 5 challenges I believe need to be overcome for internal spot.coaching programs to be successful.

The Rockstar’s 5 Challenges

1/ Availability

A lasting issue will only grow bigger.

Coaches have to be available immediately. A lasting issue will only grow bigger. It would be easy if demand was constant but the reality is that you might have weeks with 5–10 requests and suddenly a layoff plan, departement restructuring or M&A announcemnt. Coaching demand then soars and people may have to wait for weeks to talk to a coach.

2/ Neutrality

Make sure people don’t hold anything back.

Coaches have to be objective : employees need to be able to share fearlessly, which may be difficult when coaches are internal. A fresh perspective on a situation, without knowledge of culture and people, can also be helpful in this context.

3/ Scalability & Cost

Coaching schools can cost up to $20,000.

Coaching is expensive. In order to expand coaching to a large pool of employees, talent management teams will have to find cheaper coaches without compromizing on quality. This may be difficult when hiring full time coaches or paying for employees to go to coaching schools (these can cost up to $20,000).

4/ Coach-Sourcing

Every single one of these tasks can be a headache.

Hiring internal coaches is very time-consuming. The standard process can take from 2 weeks to 3 months depending on how lucky you are. The basic breakdown of the process is as follows: search, contact, get references/CV/etc.., multiple interview, negotiate and on-board. Every single one of these tasks can be a headache.